ALL WEEK, CIAN Healy had done his best to push his personal feelings and emotions to the side. The moment he nearly cracked was when Devin Toner surprised him with a presentation in the changing room after Healy had surpassed Toner as Leinster’s all-time record caps holder.
There was a brief wobble for Healy pre-match as he thought he felt his hamstring twinge but it turned out to be the adductor on the inside of his leg that caused a cramping sensation, nothing that could stop him from winning cap number 281.
Healy received huge ovations from the Leinster fans at the Aviva Stadium before and after a 52-minute shift at loosehead prop, then came Toner’s presentation.
“It massively caught me off guard because he called over to the house [on Friday] during the captain’s run and dropped off a gift and a card,” said Healy, who will turn 37 next Monday.
“I was onto him and chatting to him but he kept his cool and didn’t mention a thing. He was in the changing room with his son and spoke some unbelievable words and was very close to having me in tears.
“A special moment, it was real nice and I hope it’s something I can do in the future for someone else.”
When you factor in Healy’s 131 Ireland caps, his achievement is even more remarkable. That he has done all of this while playing in a hugely attritional position like loosehead only adds to it. When he recently hit 400 combined appearances for Leinster and Ireland, Healy briefly thought to himself that it was a cool marker to hit.
And while he did his best not to get caught up in the achievement last week, Healy said post-match that he had “a great feeling of pride” at how far he has come in rugby. Rightly so.
This is set to be his final season as a professional rugby player but he is far from being in wind-down mode.
“This probably will be the last one,” said Healy.
“The body is good. It has its aches but it’s always had its aches. If you mentally give into those aches and start taking Mondays off training and doing that, that’s not what I’m about, so I don’t think it has that effect on me.
“I enjoy the challenge of getting around sore knees and a stiff back, and getting through a training session and playing my part. I like that. It’s like a small personal win that nobody else needs to know about.”
As he looks to add to his Leinster record over the remainder of the season, Healy is also highly ambitious about continuing to feature for Ireland.
Just three more Tests would move him ahead of Brian O’Driscoll as Ireland’s all-time record caps holder but that’s not the only motivation for Healy.
“That’s not in my hands – what’s in my hands is to put a couple of performances together when Leo and the lads give me the opportunity to try and get back into that squad,” said Healy.
“I’d love to win another Six Nations, that is something I’d want to be a part of, share those experiences with more people. I’d love to be part of the November Series that looks to be against some serious teams.
“So, yeah, there is an itch I want to scratch there and it’s not so much about going past Drico, it’s about winning and achieving things with groups of people. That’s something that seriously drives me.”
Having a few more big days out with his family would be special.
His sons, Russell and Beau, are only two and three, but they’ve been on the pitch with their dad more than a few times, although not on Friday night.
“They enjoyed it in bed tonight,” said Healy with a smile. “I’m not messing with the routine! I’d rather have them in great form in the morning and play with them than keep them up to 11 o’clock at night.
“Any games in the afternoon, Laura tries to get them to the games and she ends up not seeing much of it, or watching it from the FAI suite.
“It’s great. I never got it when I was younger when lads had the kids on the pitch. I was very much like ‘Jeez, this is very much the workplace’.
“But, no, even before I had kids I started to get it and see what it meant to the lads as I got older and more understanding of the wider family aspect of what rugby is.
“It is not just about the game, it’s about dragging all these families together and making special connections and I started to understand that and then my own came along and I started to enjoy it. I do love having them on the pitch especially when the other guys have theirs on the pitch and they are going wild. Good craic.”
Healy knows he wouldn’t have been able to get this far without the support of his wife, Laura.
“She has been rock solid by my side and probably last season was one of the most challenging with time away and the two boys – three stints in South Africa,” said Healy.
“She just doesn’t bat an eyelid at it, tells me to go and enjoy the game. That’s a huge support and something I don’t take for granted. After rugby, hopefully I can pay that back.”
Healy is a different player now to the rampaging young prop who made his Leinster debut against Border Reivers in 2007 and was playing for Ireland within two years having helped his province to their first Heineken Cup title in 2009.
The sense of pride stems not just from racking up appearances but in being able to overcome serious setbacks – let’s not forget he had signed the insurance forms to retire in 2015 – and also reinventing himself a few times. When he lost a bit of speed, for example, he focused even more on his scrummaging and maul defence.
Leinster play a game on the bus on away days where they have to name the starting team from a team-mate’s first cap.
“There are good laughs when my one comes up,” said Healy.
For posterity: Girvan Dempsey; Rob Kearney, Shane Horgan, Gordon D’Arcy, Denis Hickie; Felipe Contepomi (captain), Guy Easterby; Reggie Corrigan, Bernard Jackman, Will Green; Trevor Hogan, Malcolm O’Kelly; Stephen Keogh, Keith Gleeson, Jamie Heaslip.
Cameron Jowitt, Chris Whitaker, Owen Finegan, Brian Blaney, Luke Fitzgerald, Christian Warner, and Healy came off the bench, while Gregor Townsend was among the subs for the now-defunct Border Reivers.
As his journey began, Healy had ideas about where the game might take him, but not in the sense of becoming Leinster and, possibly, Ireland’s record caps holder.
“I was aware when I was starting out my rugby journey that it was still quite a young professional sport.
“I had these visions that by year 2018, we would be getting paid like footballers. That didn’t happen!”
It’s been a hell of a journey and there are a few more adventures still to come.
Cian Healy is an absolute treasure of Leinster and Irish rugby. In the most demanding of positions he has consistently delivered outstanding performances. He has overcome crippling injuries and came back impressively. He carries his rugby gifts with humility and with a no fuss mentality. I think we may never see his like again after he retires.
And you could say the same about Devin.